Archive for the ‘sports’ Category

After a 20-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals dropped their record to 4-7-1 on the season the Green Bay Packers decided it was time to make a head coaching change.

Mike McCarthy was in his 13th season with the Packers and had a very good record of 125-77-2, but last season was the first since 2008 that the Packers finished under.500 and missed the playoffs. Now this season the Packers can still finish over .500 by winning out, but making the playoffs looks like a different story.

I have to say that I was a little surprised by the reaction of the national media as most of the experts I saw thought that Green Bay did McCarthy a disservice by firing him with 4 games left I the season. Most thought that Green Bay should’ve just let McCarthy finish the season as head coach and then let him go, but I don’t understand that logic. If you’ve made the decision that you’re going to be letting the head coach go why wait until the end of the season? I think it’s better that the Packers and McCarthy went their separate ways now instead of waiting. By making the move now it allows McCarthy to start thinking about another coaching job if that’s what he wants to do and it also gives the Packers a head start in looking for their new coach.

Humorously this is the same national media that thought it was a great move when the Cleveland Browns fired Hue Jackson after Week 8 this season. Is it because Jackson doesn’t have the same resume as McCarthy that makes one a good move and one a bad move?

Joe Philbin was named interim head coach of the Packers. Philbin was serving as the teams offensive coordinator, but McCarthy was calling the plays for the offense.

This is Philbin’s second stint on the Packers coaching staff. He joined Green Bay in 2003 and was with them until 2011 in his final four seasons there he was the offensive coordinator. In 2012 Philbin was hired as the Miami Dolphins head coach. He spent three seasons plus four games as the Dolphins head coach amassing a record of 24-28 while there.

Philbin will be the 15th head coach in Packers history, but it hasn’t been said if he’ an actual candidate for the permanent job or if he’ll just finish out the 2018 season. Maybe if the Packers run the table Philbin would be considered as a serious head coaching candidate.

There was a second firing over the weekend, but this one was in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls decided it was time to move on from head coach Fred Hoiberg after the team started out 5-19 this season.

Hoiberg was in his fourth season with the Bulls and the teams record was worse ever season he was there. After starting out with a winning record at 42-40 in his first season, but not making the playoffs. The Bulls came back and went 41-41 the next year and managed to sneak into the playoffs. They where knocked out in the 1st round. The Bulls fell to 27-55 last season before getting off to such a bad start this season that they decided to make a coaching change.

This was Hoiberg’s first NBA head coaching job. Before getting the Bulls job Hoiberg was head coach at Iowa State University for 5 seasons. Hoiberg had a 115-56 record at Iowa State and made the NCAA Tournament five of the six seasons he coached their. Iowa State mad it to the Sweet 16 one time with Hoiberg as their head coach.

When the Bulls named Hoiberg as their head coach back in June of 2015 they also announced that he had signed a 5-year $25 million dollar deal; so it looks like the Bulls will be paying him not to coach for a period of time.

Jim Boylen will take over as the Bulls head coach in place of Hoiberg. This is the first time that Boylen will be a head coach, but he has many years as an assistant coach.

Boylen has an interesting coaching history. He started as an assistant with Michigan State University from 1987-1992. Then he went to the Houston Rockets from 1992-2003. He spent a year with the Golden Sate Warriors 2003-2004 and then a year with the Milwaukee Bucks 2004-2005 before returning to Michigan State from 2005-2007. Boylen then went to the Utah Jazz from 2007-2011. Then he was with the Indiana Pacers from 2011-2013. Then it was off to the San Antonio Spurs from 2013-2015 before landing in with the Bulls at the start of the 2015 season.

So I guess you can say that Boylen doesn’t have any head coaching experience, but as you can see he has a lot of coaching experience and has been on the coaching staff of three NBA champions.

Of course these won’t be the last two coaching fired in either the NBA or the NFL. These where just two teams that decided to make a change and thought it was better to make it now than wait until the end of or in the case of the NBA the middle of the season to make a move.

You just never know which teams are going to make coaching changes. Remember two of the NFL coaches that where “on the hot seat” Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens now have the respective teams in the hunt for a playoff spot. I don’t know if that might mean they’re safe as their teams could just as easily fall out of playoff contention, but sometimes you can’t push a coach out the door to quickly.

In the NBA there was some talk very early that Luke Walton’s job with the Los Angeles Lakers might be in trouble because he wasn’t LeBron James’ choice as coach, but that rumor has seemed to have went away. There was also some talk that the Washington Wizards would remove Scott Brooks as their head coach as the team has struggled badly this season, but as of right now Brooks is still their head coach.

Of course these things can change quickly; so who knows who might be the next head coach to go or wat league that coach will be from.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Coming into Thursday night there where a lot of people predicting that the New Orleans Saints would represent the NFC in the Super Bowl while the Dallas Cowboys seemed to be finding themselves, but weren’t considered in the same class as New Orleans. The teams met on Thursday night on Dallas and what happened? Of course the Cowboys held the Saints to a season low 10 points and picked up a 13-10 win. What we have to figure out now is was it just a rough night for the Saints? Or are the Cowboys going to be a serious contender?

We know all of the stats about the Saints. They came into Thursday’s game on a 10-game winning streak and had looked like they where unstoppable. Now the Cowboys came into this game on a modest 3-game winning streak, but they had been playing better and had taken over 1st place in the NFC East.

Even though the Cowboys won this game the question just kept coming. Was it just another fluke game on a Thursday night? Would the or could the Cowboys do this same thing had the game been played in New Orleans? Along those same lines there are people asking if the Cowboys could repeat a performance like this in the playoffs. Now of course we can’t answer any of those questions and it’s really just a way for the people who picked the Saints to win the game to cover up the loss.

Now to be fair I had the Saints winning this game as did Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu. I never got a pick from Mr. Fantasy; so he gets the automatic “L”. Hopefully the rest of our Week 13 picks go better.

Now I’m sure that everyone fully expects the Saints to bounce back next week as they travel to Raymond James Stadium to face the only other team they’ve lost to this season the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

How about the Cowboys though. They’ll be hosting the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles next week and while the Eagles haven’t played anywhere near as well as they did last season they’re still a threat. Philadelphia could actually do the Cowboys a huge favorite this week if they can beat the Washington Redskins on Monday night. Dallas is in 1st place because of tiebreaker, but an Eagles win would give the Cowboys an actually one game lead in the NFC East. That win would also be huge for the Eagles as it would get them back to .500 and out them right in the race in the NFC East.

Now after the Eagles game the Cowboys have a tough game in Week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts, but they have two very winnable games to close out the season. I Week 16 they’ll host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before finishing the season on the road against the New York Giants. While these look like two games that the Cowboys should win they’ll have to play good defense as the Buccaneers can put points on the scoreboard and the Giants feature two of the best players at their respective positions in wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and running back Saquion Barkley.

How do you see the Cowboy season ending? Do they win the NFC East and make the playoffs? Or do they struggle down the stretch and end up on the outside looking in?

While the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets work on a blockbuster deal that could get Robinson Cano’s salary off of the Mariners books they did make a smaller deal to keep the rebuild moving along.

Seattle sent reliever Alex Colome to the Chicago White Sox for catcher Omar Narvaez. Colome appeared in 47 games for the Mariners after he was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. Seattle brought Colome in to set up for closer Edwin Diaz and he did a solid job. Colome ended up going 5-0 with the Mariners while posting an ERA of 2.53. He did pick up 1 save, but more importantly in the set up role he had 30 holds. Colome had been the Rays closer since 2016 and led MLB in saves with 47 in 2017. Colome made $5.3 million dollars last season, but is head into his first year of arbitration; so his salary is expected to take a big jump up.

In return for Colome the Mariners get a catcher in Narvaez who has been playing in a platoon situation for the past two seasons. Narvaez played in 97 games last season for the White Sox and hit .275 with 9 home runs. Narvaez also threw out 24% of runners trying to steal against him. Remember that the Mariners traded their starting catcher from last season Mike Zunino; so it looks like Narvaez will get his first opportunity get a full season of at bats.

Now the Mariners deal that is getting the most attention features Robinson Cano along with closer Edwin Diaz heading to the Mets for a package of prospects. The hang up right now is which players the Mets would be sending to Seattle in this deal.

Some of the names that have been thrown out there are former 1st round draft picks Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Kelenic was the 6th pick in the 2018 draft while Dunn was selected with the 19th pick in the 2016 draft. David Peterson’s names has also came up; he was the Mets 1st round pick 20th overall in the 2017 draft.

Now there has also been some talk of current major league players being included in this deal. Names like Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak and Jeff McNeil have been mentioned. Bruce and Swarzak would be in the deal to help even out the salaries, but the inclusion of McNeil might just be the fat that him and Cano play the same position and there wouldn’t be a spot for him with the Mets. At first there was talk of Domenic Smith being included in this deal, but as of late I haven’t seen his name mentioned.

It does appear as though this deal will happen as reports are saying that the teams picked up “significant momentum” in trying to get something done.

Do you like the idea of the Mets acquiring Cano and Diaz? Or are they other player you’d like to see them target in a trade?

Don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but remember the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

If you had to make a pick right now; who would you say is the best team in the NFL? I’m sure there are three or maybe four teams that you had in mind, but which one would you go with as the best. Let’s see what we can find out.

Did you take the New Orleans Saints? Right now you’d have to that the Saints are most people’s choice. They’ve won 10 games in a row since Week 1 when they surprisingly lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints have scored more points (409) than any other team in the NFL. The defense has always been a question mark in New Orleans, but so far they’ve given up just an average of 73.2 yards rushing per game which is the best in the NFL. Now that rushing defense may be helped by the fact that teams have to throw to try and keep pace with the Saints offense, but is it possible that the way to beat this team is to keep Drew Brees on the sidelines with a good running game.

Maybe you went with the Kansas City Chiefs as the best team. The Chiefs are coming off of that wild Monday Night game against the Los Angeles Rams since they had a Week 12 bye. The Chiefs have two losses both by 3 points. Kansas City can also score as they are right behind the Saints in points scored with 404. Week 13 features a classic trap game for the Chiefs against the Oakland Raiders; so will see if they get caught looking past this game. Kansas City’s defense has had it’s issues this season, but they got some good news this week as safety Eric Berry is expected to return to practice this week and might be ready to play against the Raiders this week. Berry has yet to play this season and should make the Chiefs defense better the minute he steps on the field.

Could the Los Angeles Rams be the best team? Right out of the gate here we have three teams with big time offenses. The Rams have the third highest scoring offense in the league behind the Saints and the Chiefs and while the Rams did find a way to win their shootout against the Chiefs they dropped their Week 9 match up with the Saints. It’s possible that the Rams have the easiest schedule out of the top contenders as they face just one team with a currently with a winning record. That team is the Chicago Bears who’ll the Rams face in Week 14. Defensively I’m not sure if the Rams have been as good as people thought they would be with eight former #1 draft choices lining up on that side of the football. Maybe with what could be an easier schedule the Rams defense can build some momentum heading into the playoffs.

Now at the start of this blog I mentioned that there could be three or four teams that could be the best in the NFL. Now we’ve covered three teams; so who could that fourth team be?

Even though they’re 8-3 can you really count the New England Patriots out. It’s ben a bit of an up and down year for the Patriots as they have a win over the Chiefs, but have lost games to the Jacksonville Jaquars, Detroit Lions and Tennessee Titans. You have to think that with the return of Rob Gronkowski the Patriots offense should improve; of course he’ll have to stay healthy. I’m not sure if you can call New England’s defense spectacular, but it may be the best out of the four teams we’ve been through. Maybe you don’t agree and you don’t have the Patriots as a contender, but how can you count Tom Brady and Bill Belichick out until they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs.

There are some other teams out there, but at this point I’m not sure if they could beat one of the four we started with in a playoff game, but you never know.

The Los Angeles Chargers and the Houston Texans are 8-3 and the Texans have won 8 games in a row. The Chargers and the Texans along with the Pittsburgh Steelers who are 7-3-1 should all make the playoffs, but do you think they’d be good enough to knock off the Chiefs or the Patriots? Remember that the Chiefs would be the home team against any of those teams; so they’d have to go into Arrowhead to beat them. There’s a chance that New England would have to go to Houston in the playoff format, but otherwise they’d host a playoff game.

In the NFC the Chicago Bears have been a surprise at 8-3 right now, but do you see them beating the Saints or the Rams in a playoff game. Will get a sneak peak of how the Bears will match up with the Rams as they’ll meet in Week 14 in Chicago. Other than the Bears is there another 6 win team in the NFC that you have confidence in going up against the Rams or the Saints. You’ve got the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins on of which may win the NFC East. There’s the Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings all with 6 wins. How do you think they’d do against New Orleans or Los Angeles?

As of right now it would take a major playoff upset for the either the Saints or Rams to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl while in the AFC if you’re not counting New England in that top group then Kansas City would have to be upset to not be the AFC counter part in the Super Bowl.

So you’ve seen what’s out there. Which two of the big teams do you see making it to the Super Bowl? Or do you think that there’s a possibility that a team with more playoff experience could sneak in and knock off one of the better teams? Let me know who you’re going with in the comments.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

This past Monday the NFL had a game that everyone was talking about. The Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs showed what two quality offensive teams can do with the new rules the NFL has put in. Coming off of that showcase type of a game the NFL had three more chances on Thanksgiving day to highlight what the NFL is turning into. Being that it was the Thanksgiving holiday instead of just one Thursday night game there where three games on the schedule.

The day opened with the NFC North leading Chicago Bears going to Detroit to take on the Lions. Detroit is one of the two teams and cite that traditionally host a Thanksgiving day game. The second game of the day featured a battle for the top spot on the NFC East as the Dallas Cowboys hosted the Washington Redskins. Dallas is the other place where there is always a Thanksgiving day game played. The third and final game had what many people think is the best team in football the New Orleans Saints hosting the Atlanta Falcons in an NFC South match up.

With the NFL coming in on just about as high of a note as they could be after the Monday night game the opener on Thursday did just about everything in it’s power to kill that. It was as boring and uninteresting as an NFL game could be and if you are anything like me you where starting to hope that there was something else on.

Now the Bears where playing without their starting quarterback as Mitchell Trubisky mossed the game with a shoulder injury. Chase Daniels got the start in Trubisky’s place and even though he has played in this type of offensive system for a few seasons now the Bears need to hope that Trubisky has a quick recovery.

The Lions where playing with a bit of an offensive handicap as well. They where missing their top wide receiver and top running back for this game as both where out injured. It was also pointed out over and over on the broadcast that with the injury to Marvin Jones Jr. and the trade of Golden Tate the Lions don’t have a receiver who can really break away from a defender.

As the game plodded along I really lost interest in it and I was hoping that it would be time to eat very soon. Oddly just as I thought I was being saved from this terrible game both teams decided they wanted to score some points. Some how Detroit was leading this snore-fest 13-9 heading into the 4th quarter when I was very happy that it was time to eat. I ended up missing the Bears putting up two touchdowns in the 4th quarter. Their final score was an Eddie Jackson 41 yard interception return which ended up being the winning touchdown as the Bears pulled out a 23-16 victory.

While I’m sure this wasn’t the type of game that the NFL wanted to kick the day off with you kind of get what you get with the Lions who just aren’t a very good team this season.

The second game had a little more interest to it as the winner would be in 1st place in the NFC East.

The Redskins where also starting a back up quarterback as Colt McCoy would be making the start in place of the inured Alex Smith.

This was a much better game than the first one as both teams where able to move the football. This game featured some big scoring plays which also makes the game a lot more fun to watch. Washington tied the game at 7-7 when McCoy connected with Vernon Davis for a 53-yard touchdown pass. The Redskins took a 13-10 lead before the Cowboys hit their first big play as Dak Prescott hit Amari Cooper for a 40-yard touchdown pass to give Dallas the lead back at 17-13. On the Cowboys next series Prescott went to Cooper again, but this time it was for a 90-yard touchdown pass to extend the Cowboys lead to 24-13. Prescott threw his third and final touchdown pass of the game with about 14 minutes left in the game and it looked as though the Cowboys would cruise to a victory as they had a 31-13 lead. The Redskins where unable to comeback, but they did manage to make it interesting as they scored 10 straight points to get the game to 31-23 where it ended.

With the win both Dallas and Washington have a 6-5 record, but due to tiebreakers the Cowboys are considered the 1st place team in the NFC East.

While the second game kind of got Thanksgiving day football back on track I’m not sure if the third game of the day was what everyone had hoped it would be.

The Falcons have had a down year coming into the game at 4-6 they still have what looks like a talented offense. On the other side the Saints have only lost one game this season and that was back in Week 1. How many people remember that New Orleans lost that Week 1 game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I don’t think anyone was surprised when the Saints got out to a quick lead 7-0 as Drew Brees threw the first of his four touchdown passes. The Falcons answered with a field goal to make it a 7-3 game, but the surprise here was that would be the only points the Falcons would score in the first half.

The Saints added 10 points to their lead as Brees threw his second touchdown pass with just about three minutes left before halftime to make it a 17-3 game. Sadly the game was pretty much over at this point, but you know every fantasy owner wanted to know what Brees would do in the second half.

The Falcons did score first in the 3rd quarter to make it a 17-10 game, but the Saints scored the next two touchdown in the making the score 31-10 Atlanta did get into the end zone one more time to get the game to it’s final score of 31-17.

Brees didn’t put up too many yards in the game; just 171, but he threw 4 touchdown passes. interestingly those touchdown asses went to receivers who probably aren’t on a lot of fantasy rosters. Tommylee Lewis, Austin Carr, Keith Kirkwood and Dan Arnold where the four Saints players who caught touchdown passes from Brees. I know there are people who have picked up Carr and Kirkwood in some bigger leagues, but I’m willing to bet they didn’t play them. I get the feeling that Lewis and Arnold will be waive wire pick ups this next week.

Let me know how you Thanksgiving football watching experience was and don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com.

The Seattle Mariners finished the 2018 season with a record of 89-73. They ended up finishing 8 games out of a wild card spot after contending for it most of the season. Now it looks as though the Mariners will be the next team to go through a tear down and rebuild.

On Monday the Mariners got started down this road as they sent starting pitcher James Paxton to the New York Yankees for three minor leaguers.

The Mariners picked up Justus Sheffield who was the Yankees top pitching prospect. Sheffield started the season in Double-A, but pitched more in Triple-A. Sheffield made 20 appearances with 15 of those being starts in Triple-A. He went 6-4 with a 2.56 ERA. Sheffield did make 3 appearances at the major league level last season with 2 of those being starts, but they didn’t go so well. He pitched just 2 2/3rd innings and had an ERA of 10.13. Sheffield doesn’t turn 23 until May of 2019; so there’s no rush to get him to the majors.

The Mariners also got 25 year old right handed pitcher Erik Swanson. He pitched at three minor league levels last season Class-A, Class-AA and like Sheffield spent most of his time at the Triple-A level. Swanson made 14 appearances at Triple-A with 13 of those being starts. He went 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA, but he did throw a complete game. Swanson should compete for a spot in the starting rotation this spring.

The third player the Mariners got in this deal was 23 year old centerfielder Dom Thompson-Williams. He played 100 games between two Class-A levels last season with 90 of those games being played at High Class-A. For the season he hit .299 with 22 home runs and 74 RBI’s. He also stole 20 bases, but struck out 102 times. Since Thompson-Williams hasn’t played above the Class-A level it will be a few seasons before he might make it to the majors.

There are also some reports out there that the Mariners have engaged the San Diego Padres in trade talks centering around Will Myers. Now there are conflicting reports on how far along this type of a deal might be. There are reports that have this deal as on the table and other reports that say it’s not anywhere close to being done.

The actually trade as of now would see the Mariners send Jean Segura and Mike Leake to San Diego for Myers. Both Segura and Leake have full no trade clauses in their contracts; so that would have to be worked out before the deal could happen. Segura is signed through 2024 while Leake’s contract runs through the 2022 season.

With talk of Segura and Leake possibly being dealt you have to wonder how long before we’ll start to hear rumors about some of the other Mariners with bigger contracts. You’d have to think that Seattle would be interested in moving players like Kyle Seager and Dee Gordon. Another guy who they might like to move is Robinson Cano, but he still has 6 years left in his contract and he’ll be 41 by the time that contract comes to an end. I doubt there would be much interest in him unless a contender has an serious injury and Seattle would probably still have to pick up a very, very large chunk of that remaining contract.

Of course there’s also “The King” Felix Hernandez. Now Hernandez is in the final year of his contract, but he’s had his struggles the last couple of seasons. Hernandez was actually taken out of the starting rotation last season, but due to injury he only made one relief appearance. Hernandez made 28 starts and had a record of 8-14 with an ERA of 5.55. That was the highest ERA Hernandez has ever had in a season. He has also missed starts in the last three seasons due to injuries. Hernandez is just 32 years old, but will be starting his 15 major league season in 2019. As you can guess Hernandez is the Mariners all-time leader in every major category for starting pitchers.

Now with a salary of $25 million dollars for this coming season if Hernandez gets off to a good start and is looking more like his old self than he has the past couple of seasons could he be traded? You have to think that’s it’s possible in the final year of his contract that a contender might be interested in a pitcher like Hernandez.

While it would be sad to see Hernandez go and strange to see him in another uniform he might have a chance to add a World Series ring to his resume that should have him as a borderline Hall of Fame player.

Well if you where looking for some offense; you got it out of the Monday Night game as the Los Angeles Rams beat the Kansas City Chiefs 54-51.

Now interestingly I heard someone reviewing the game in Tuesday morning and they where going on and on about how Patrick Mahomes had the greatest game in the history of the NFL for a quarterback. Now Mahomes was 33 of 46 while throwing for 478 yards and 6 touchdowns. Now those are great numbers and that’s what this guy was really pumping up on television. Now what he forgot to mention was the fact that Mahomes threw 3 interceptions; lost 2 fumbles and I think more importantly his team came out on the losing end. The question I have for everyone is; can this be considered the greatest game ever for a quarterback when your team doesn’t win?

Now with my work schedule I didn’t get to see as much of this game as I would’ve like to have. I’m sure it was fun to watch and it seems as though everyone thinks that this is the way the NFL is going to go. Is this the style of NFL game you’d like to see played? I do enjoy seeing good defense payed, but with the new rules that are set to try and limit injuries it’s difficult to play good defense and against teams like this it’s even more difficult. I guess will have to wait nd see if and or how the league tries to react to what’s going on; until just enjoy the offense.

The Sports Time Radio podcast can be heard live on BlogTalkRadio.com. Don’t forget that the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Burketime and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow is the final race of the NASCAR season. The Ford EcoBoost 400 will be run at Homestead-Miami Speedway with NASCAR crowning a new champion at the end of the race.

16 drivers started off with a chance to win the title, but now it’s down to four. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick are the four drivers left with a chance to win the Monster Energy Series championship.

Truex Jr. is the defending series champion, so he’ll be looking to become the first repeat champion since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2009-2010. Those were the final two championships of 5 in a row that Johnson won. Adding to the intrigue of another championship for Truex Jr., is the fact that his team, Furniture Row Racing, will be shutting down after tomorrow’s race. Truex Jr. has one win this season. He won the 5th race of the season at California. Can Truex Jr. get his second win of the season which would lead to his second championship tomorrow? Back to back titles could be a fitting way for Truex Jr. to send Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser off.

Kyle Busch was the 2015 Cup champion when the series was headed up by Sprint. Busch was also the regular season champion for this season. Busch won 8 races this season including last week’s race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix Arizona. Busch drives the #18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. Will Busch be the driver picking up his second NASCAR championship at the end of tomorrow’s race?

Kevin Harvick also has one Cup championships as he claimed the title back in 2014. Harvick also won 8 races this season including the 3rd, 4th and 5th race of the season. Harvick won two weeks ago at the Texas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive season. Harvick will be trying to pick up his second championship driving the #4 car for Stewart/Hass Racing.

Joey Logano is the only one of the final four drivers looking for his first championship. Logano drives the #22 car for Team Penske. Logano has two wins this season with one of them coming three weeks ago at the Martinsville Speedway. Logano made three appearances in NASCAR’s top series as an 18 year old in 2008 before joining Joe Gibbs Racing full time in 2009. There was a lot of hype for Logano as he picked up the nickname “Sliced Bread” and if he can pick up the first championship of his career it show that even though it’s taken a while people knew what they where talking about.

Who’s your pick for tomorrow’s race? Do you have Logano getting his first championship? Can Truex Jr. send his team out with a championship? Or will it be Harvick or Busch picking up the second championship of their careers?

Heading into tomorrow’s race Denny Hamlin will be the driver who starts on the pole as he claimed that spot with a speed of 173.863 mph. As for the four championship drivers Busch will start right next to Hamlin as he qualified 2nd. Truex Jr. will be the driver starting right behind Hamlin as he’ll start 3rd tomorrow. Logano will be position right behind Truex Jr. as he’ll start 5th while Harvick is a little farther in 12th.

Jimmy Butler made his second appearance and his first at home for the Philadelphia 76ers and had better results than game one.

Butler scored a team high 28 points on 12 of 15 shooting as the 76ers picked up a 113-107 victory over the Utah Jazz. Butler added 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals to his stat line in 37 minutes.

Butler’s first game with the 76ers didn’t go as well as they lost 111-106 to the Orlando magic. Butler scored 14 points in 32 minutes of play. He shot 6 of 12 from the field with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

As Butler finds his role with the 76ers you have to think the addition of a veteran two-way type of player that Butler is, will help this team. Is it enough to get the 76ers though the Eastern Conference and into the NBA Finals? Only time will tell.

Now in Friday night’s Philadelphia win, there was an interesting statistic on the Utah side of the box score.

Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz took 35 shots in the game and while it’s not unusual for an NBA player to take a lot of shots what makes Mitchell’s stat line interesting was the fact that he didn’t have an assist in the game.

Mitchell scored 31 points in the game going 13 of 35 from the field, but just 1 of 11 from behind the 3-point line. While he might not of had an assist in the game Mitchell did have 4 steals and grabbed 2 rebounds.

This was the first time a player had 35 shot attempts with no assists since Carmelo Anthony did it for the New York Knicks on January 24th 2014. Anthony had 62 points n that game. Antoine Walker of the Boston Celtics also had a 35 shot no assist night back on January 7th 1998. Now nobody has taken so many shots with no assist and scored fewer points then Mitchell since Elvin Hayes. Back on February 8th 1969 Hayes scored 28 points going 13 of 40 from the field with no assists. Hayes also grabbed 24 rebounds in that game.

Mitchell’s coach and teammates had no issues at all with him taking 35 shots, but Mitchell himself didn’t seem to thrilled saying “I took 35 shots. That can’t happen. Zero assists, that’s not who I am, that’s not how I play. I know I’m still being aggressive, but I have to be smart.”

The loss dropped the Jazz to a game under .500 at 7-8. It was also Utah’s second loss in a row, but they’ll have a chance to get back to .500 and end that short losing streak tonight as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden Arena tonight.

Just 15 games in it’s tough to tell how the Jazz season will go, but they were a playoff team last season. They won their first round match up against the Oklahoma City Thunder before being knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Houston Rockets.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that he podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Major League Baseball has started handed out their awards. They started with the Rookie of the Year award and yesterday the Manager of the Year awards where given out. We still have the Cy Young award and the MVP award to be handed out, but let’s take a look at the two categories they’ve handed out.

There where three really good candidates up for the NL Rookie of the Year award, but in the end it was Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves who took home the award. Acuna Jr. got 27 of the 30 1st place votes cast. Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals came home in 2nd place while the Los Angeles Dodgers Walker Buehler finished in 3rd place. Brian Anderson of the Miami Marlins finished 4th, Jack Flaherty of the St. Louis Cardinals came in 5th. Harrison Bader of the Cardinals Yoshihisa Hirano of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Jeff McNeil each picked up one 3rd place vote.

I don’t think there’s any real issue with Acuna Jr. bringing this ward home. I wouldn’t of been surprised if the voters had went the other way and Soto had won, but either or would been a good choice for Rookie of the Year. Buehler would’ve been a bit of a surprise if he had won, but even that wouldn’t have been a big deal.

Sadly over in the American League stupidity reigned supreme and Shohei Otani of the Los Angeles Angels ended up taking home the AL Rookie of the Year award. Because the voters bought the hype Otani got 25 of the 29 1st place votes cast. That meant that the player who should’ve won the award Miguel Andujar of the New York Yankees finished in 2nd place. There where at least 5 voters smart enough to pay attention to the actual game of baseball as they had Andujar first on their ballots. Andujar’s teammate Gleybar Torres came in 3rd while Joey Wendle of the Tampa Bay Rays finished in 4th. Ryan Yarbrough also of the Rays and Daniel Palka of the Chicago White Sox each garnered one 3rd place vote.

I am just so tired of fighting this fight that I can’t do it anymore. Otani didn’t deserve to win the award, but since no one pays attention to how the game is played on the field even though the most important thing is still winning games he ends up winning Rookie of the Year. I’m also really tired of everyone calling Otani a two-way player. At best he’s a one and a half way player since he doesn’t play a defensive position and just DH’s when he’s not pitching. I’m just so done with these idiots.

In the National League again I thought they had three solid choices for Manager of the Year. I don’t think you could’ve argued with anyone of them winning the award. In the end it was Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves who picked up the award. Snitker got 17 of the 30 1st place votes cast. Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers picked up 11 1st place votes on his way to finishing 2nd while Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies finished 3rd. Even though he didn’t manage the entire season Mike Shildt of the St. Louis cardinals finished in 4th place while Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs came in 5th and actually got a 1st place vote. I found it hard to believe that Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers only got 1 3rd place vote, but I guess winning when you’re expected to doesn’t get you any votes.

I looked into and saw that Maddon’s 1st place vote cam from a Chicago voter. It was Bruce Levine who is a baseball analyst on WSCR 670 The Score. He had Maddon 1st, Counsell 2nd and Snitker 3rd. I would love to know what his thinking was for this. How did he put Maddon ahead of Counsell when the Brewers finished ahead of the Cubs in the standings and Maddon had a much better roster to work with. I guess Levine figured he better kiss the Cubs rear end and hopefully it will pay off for him when he needs tickets or an interview or something like that.

Over in the American League it was Bob Melvin of the Oakland A’s who took home the Manager of the Year award and won by a bigger margin than I expected him to. Melvin got 18 of the 30 1st place votes cast on his way to the win. Alex Cora of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox picked up 7 1st place votes as he finished in 2nd place and it was Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays who picked up 5 1st place votes on his way to a 3rd place finish. A.J. Hinch of the Houston Astros was the 4th place finisher while Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees finished 5th.

In just his first year as a major league manager and with the season the Red Sox ended up having I really thought that Cora would win this award, but it was Melvin who picked up his third Manager of the Year award of his career.

Melvin won his first Manager of the Year award in 2007 when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His second victory came in 2012 with the A’s. Melvin needs just one more Manager of the Year award to tie Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox for the most Manager of the Year wins at 4. Melvin does join a pretty good group of managers who have won this award three times. Melvin is now in a group with Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, Jim Leyland, Lou Pinella and joe Maddon. That’s not to bad of a group to be in.

I’m under the impression that everyone knows this, but just in case you don’t. Post season play doesn’t count in the awards. These are all regular season awards.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to anytime you want at TuneIn.com.

Dez Bryant waited to sign until he thought he had found the right fit for him. If you remember he turned down an offer earlier this season from the Baltimore Ravens and while I don’t know if they ever made an official offer to Bryant the Cleveland Browns where interested in signing him. It appeared as Bryant found a good landing spot for a wide receiver when he signed a 1-year $1.250 million dollar deal with the New Orleans Saints.

Bryant was official signed on November 7th and his first practice was this past Thursday. Then on the final play of practice on Friday just his second official practice Bryant was injured. Now the injury isn’t officially confirmed, but everyone is reporting that Bryant tore his Achilles. There hasn’t been any type of announcement from the Saints as they’re waiting for the results of an MRI, but that was called “a formality” as team doctors already believe it’s a torn Achilles.

If this diagnosis is correct this type of an injury would keep Bryant out approximately 8 months. That would make him healthy for training camp, but he would also be a free agent again.

There was talk that the Saints where willing to give Bryant a 2-year deal, but he wanted to sign for just the remainder of this season as a way to prove that he was still a top flight receiver in the NFL. He was hoping to use the final seven games of the Saints season to do that. I know that the Saints have eight games left this season, but Bryant wasn’t going to play this week against the Cincinnati Bengals since he had only been with the Saints for two practices.

Bryant was a three-time Pro Bowler for the Dallas Cowboys before they released him in April of this year. Bryant was due to make $12.5 million dollar with the Cowboys this season.

In 8 seasons with the Cowboys Bryant caught 531 passes for 7459 yards; averaging 14 yards per reception. For three straight seasons 2012-2014 Bryant had at least 1200 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. Bryant led the NFL in receiving touchdowns with 16 in 2014.

After an injury limited him to just 9 games and 31 receptions in 2015 there was talk that Bryant may no longer be a top receiving threat. He did bounce back with a Pro Bowl season in 2016, but it still wasn’t the season people where looking for out of Bryant. He had 50 catches for 796 yards and 8 touchdowns. Bryant did have better numbers in 2016 with 69 catches and 838 yards with 6 touchdowns, but he averaged the lowest yards per catch number of his career at 12.1.

Will we see Bryant in an NFL training camp next season?

The Bryant injury still leaves the Saints short at receiver; so what can they do? Remember Bryant wasn’t the only receiver they worked out. The Saints also had Kamar Aiken and Brandon Marshall in for workouts.

Aiken played in 5 games with the Philadelphia Eagles this season where he caught 6 passes for 53 yards.

Marshall played in 6 games for the Seattle Seahawks where he caught 11 passes for 136 yards and 1 touchdown.

It is possible that the Saints could bring one of these veteran receivers back and there where reports that Marshall “impressed” in his workout. New Orleans also has a wide receiver on their practice squad. Undrafted rookie Keith Kirkwood could possible be added to the roster for Sunday’s game just to add some depth at that position.

The Saints ended up needing some depth at wide receiver when Cameron Meredith joined Ted Ginn Jr. on inured reserve this week. Meredith is recovering from arthroscopic left knee surgery while Ginn had been in the injured reserve since Week 5 also with a knee injury. If he’s healthy Ginn can return Week 15 against the Carolina Panthers, but it’s unclear right now if he’ll be able to return.

Even with all of the losses at the wide receiver position the Saints are still very talented. They’ll head into Cincinnati for Sundays game with Michael Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith as their starters at wide receiver. They’ll get contributions from Benjamin Watson and Josh Hill at the tight end position and of course don’t forget that Alvin Kamara can catch the football out of the backfield. Who knows maybe this is the week that Taysom Hill lines up at wide receiver.

With all the talk being centered on where Bryce Harper will be playing next season I’m wondering how many people noticed the report that Joe Mauer will officially announce his retirement from baseball.

Mauer has taken out a full page newspaper ad and wrote a letter to Minnesota Twins fans announcing his decision.

The Twins handled what turned out to be Mauer’s last game perfectly. Mauer started at 1st base. He took the field alone and was greeted by his two daughters at 1st base. Then it what turned out now to be his final at bat Mauer sliced a doubled to left centerfield in the signature way he had for 15 seasons with the Twins. Then for the first time in five years Mauer put his catching gear on. He caught one pitch from Twins reliever Matt Belisle before exiting the game to a standing ovation from the Twins fans.

With Mauer’s retirement the talk will turn to will he be elected to the Hall of Fame. It’s an interesting case and it looks as though he has a good chance to go to Cooperstown.

Mauer was a catcher for the first 10 years of his career, but was forced to move out from behind the plate after battling concussion issues. As a catcher Mauer won the MVP in 2009. He also won 3 batting titles, 3 Gold Gloves and was named to the All-Star team 6 times. I know the sabermetric people are jumping up and down right now screaming that batting average doesn’t mean anything. First off you’re stupid so shut up, but Mauer also led the league in On Base Percentage 2 times as well as Slugging Percentage and On Base plus Slugging Percentage once each.

Mauer played in 1858 career games. He had 2123 hits in his career. Mauer was never a big time power hitter as he hit 10 homers or more just six times in his career with 28 being his career high in 2009, but he has a career batting average of .306.

Mauer’s Hall of Fame candidacy may hinge n who’s voting at the time his name hits the ballot. If there are enough older writers still casting votes he should have a good chance to find his way in, but since he’s not a sabermetric darling if there’s enough new voters who believe in those stats he might run into trouble.

There where two NHL head coaching changes this week and they came from teams that have won 5 Stanley Cups since the 2009-10 season.

John Stevens lasted just 13 games into this season going 4-8-1 before the Los Angeles Kings decided they needed to make a change. Stevens was the Kings head coach for a total of 82 games going 45-29-8 and while the Kings did make the playoffs last season they where swept out of the 1st round.

Stevens wasn’t the coach in Los Angeles when the Kings won their two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. Darryl Sutter was the teams head coach them and that’s who Stevens replaced.

The Kings have tabbed Willie Desjardins to replace Stevens behind the bench. Desjardins has previous head coaching experience as he was with the Vancouver Canucks for three seasons 2014-2017. In his three seasons with Vancouver Desjardins had a record of 109-110-27 and one playoff appearance.

Desjardins head coaching career with the Kings got off to a good start last night as he notched his first win. Los Angeles beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in Desjardins first game as head coach. Jack Campbell turned away 30 of the 31 shots he faced in goal while Dustin Brown, Kyle Clifford, Ilya Kovalchuk and Tyler Toffoli all scored in the Kings victory.

Desjardins and the kings get just one day off before they’ll host the 8-4-2 Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. Minnesota is currently in 2nd place in the Central division of the Western Conference.

While the Kings replaced a head coach who replaced a Stanley Cup winning head coach the Chicago Blackhawks replaced a head coach who won the Stanley Cup three different times.

After a 6-6-3 start to the season the Blackhawks decided it was time to make a head coaching change and they relieved Joel Quenneville of his duties.

Quenneville was the Blackhawks head coach for 797 games the second most in Blackhawks history. He had a career record of 452-249-96; those 452 wins are also second most in team history. Under Quenneville the Blackhawks played in 128 playoff games. They had a record of 76-52, but more importantly won the Stanley Cup on three occasions. The Blackhawks raised the Stanley Cup after the 2010, 2013 and 2015 seasons with Quenneville as their head coach.

After their last Stanley Cup win in 2014-15 the Blackhawks had two first round playoff exits and then last season for the since 2007-08 they didn’t make the playoffs; so after a slow start to this season the Blackhawks decided to let Quenneville go.

Replacing Quenneville behind the Blackhawks bench will be 33 year old Jeremy Colliton. As of his hiring Colliton will be the youngest active head coach in the NHL. Colliton has previously coached Mora IK in the Swedish professional hockey league. He was the head coach for the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League before being hired by the Blackhawks.

Colliton has two days to get himself and the Blackhawks ready for his coaching debut. The Blackhawks return home after dropping three straight road games and five straight games in a row. On Thursday they’ll host the 6-7-2 Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina is currently in 7th in the Metropolitan division of the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes are also currently on a five game losing streak; so one of these teams will get to end there losing streak tomorrow night.

I’m not sure if you’d call it a last ditch effort, but the Washington Nationals made what was describe as an “aggressive” offer to soon to be free agent Bryce Harper yesterday. As it turned out the offer from the Nationals was 10 years for $300 million dollars, but the offer was turned down.

I don’t think that there was anyone who was surprised that this offer was turned down. Free agency is going to start on Friday and there was no chance that a client of Scott Boras was going to sign any kind of contract before getting offers from other teams. Even with the Nationals having a good relationship with Boras and his other clients this deal wasn’t going to happen.

Now there are a coupe of questions that come along with this offer. Was this just a make good offer by the Nationals so when Harper signs with another team they can tell their fans that they made a good offer and he just decided to sign somewhere else. Or was this just a courtesy offer to see where Boras and Harper where money wise.

Now according to reports there where no opt outs or deferred money in the contract offer the Nationals made.

If this is just a starting point for contract negotiations with Boras for Harper you have to wonder what the other teams that are interested in signing Harper are thinking.

Harper is a former Rookie of the Year (2012) and MVP award winner (2015), but that was coming up on four seasons ago and he hasn’t really been close to have that type of year again. Harper did hit 34 home runs and he drove in 100 runs, but he hit just .249. In two of the last three seasons where Harper ha played 147 games or more he’s hit .249 or lower. The consensus is that Harper is a great player, but is he going to be worth whatever a team is going to have to pay him?

There are going to be a lot of teams that are associated with singing Harper, but who are the real players in this? There are the teams that have the money to sign him like the New York Yankees, Boston Red, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers, but does he or would he fit in with any of those teams? The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are also a team that might have to money to sign a player like Harper, but they’re going to have to figure out how to keep Mike Trout; so signing Harper might not be high o their list of things to do. There has been a lot of talk that the Philadelphia Phillies are the front runner to sign Harper, but isn’t it too early to say someone is the favorite since we don’t even know contract terms yet. Maybe we’ll see when free agency tarts if ay team tries to get the jump on signing Harper, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long process and that he’ll be one of the last free agents to sign.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to whenever you want at TuneIn.com.

On Thursday night the San Francisco 49ers had to turn to their third quarterback of this season. Nick Mullins mad the start for the injured C.J. Beathard who had been starting in place of the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. In the end it didn’t matter who was playing quarterback for the 49ers as they cruised to a 34-3 victory over the Oakland Raiders.

Mullins ended up going 16 for 22 in the game for 262 yards and 3 touchdowns. Not to bad of a first start for an undrafted free agent, but I actually want to take a look at the Raiders today.

With the loss the Raiders fall to 1-7 and are currently tied for the worst record in the NFL with the New York Giants. With 8 games to go it looks as though the Raiders really only have one solid shot at getting another win. In two weeks Oakland is on the road against the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals are 2-6 and while I think it would still be an upset for Oakland to win this game I think it’s the best chance on their schedule for them to get another win. As for the Giants they appear to have multiple games on their schedule that they could find a way to win.

So let’s say that the Raiders end up with the #1 pick in the draft. Now the Raiders also have the Chicago Bears #1 pick in 2019 and also 2020 from the Khalil Mack trade. Then they added the Dallas Cowboys 1st round pick when they traded Amari Cooper there. Right now those picks would come in at #13 and #22, but that should change as the season moves forward.

Unlike baseball in the NFL you can turn your franchise around in one good off season. If the Raiders can hit on two of those three 1st rounders and they need to do that; they would improve greatly. Just imagine if they somehow found three players that could contribute.

Now right now Oakland might not be a prime destination for free agents, but there is something about being a Raider has always been something that has drawn players. Maybe the top free agents wouldn’t be interested in joining a team that’s rebuilding, but the Raiders should be able to upgrade at positions of need in free agency.

So let’s say that two of the draft picks the Raiders made contribute during the 2019 season. With the addition of some key free agents I don’t think that Oakland would be a playoff team, but they could get close to .500. Then when the 2020 draft rolls around they’ll have their 1st round pick and the Bears 1st round pick. That gives them the chance to add two more top picks that can contribute.

Now this is all speculation and with Jon Gruden it’s tough to predict which direction the Raiders will go, but it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if the Raiders where contending for a playoff spot in 2020.

Now rebuilding isn’t something that’s normally done in the NFL, but if the Raiders find success with this could we see other teams try to make a quick turnaround?

It looks as though the Cleveland Indians have some concerns about their teams payroll and they’re willing to deal some of their veteran players to get that payroll where they want it.

The Indians came out yesterday and more or less said that with the exception of shortstop Francisco Lindor and MVP candidate Jose Ramirez who played 2nd and 3rd base for the Indians last season.

That means that the Indians would be willing to listen to offers or possible trade players like starting pitchers Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco. Or how about veterans like Edwin Encarnacion, Jason Kipnis or either of or both catchers Yan Gomes and Roberto Perez.

The Indians starting working on that payroll by not extending qualifying offers to Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

If Cleveland had made a qualifying offer to any or all of those three players to and it had been accepted they would’ve been paid $17.9 million dollars for next season.

While the Indians wouldn’t deal all of those veteran players some of the contracts they’re trying to move look like this. Kluber is scheduled to make $17 million dollars next season. His contract also has two options years. In 2020 he’d make $17.5 million dollars and then in 2018 his salary would be $18 million dollars. Carrasco has what has to be considered a team friendly deal as he’ll make $9.75 million dollars next season and he has an option for the 2020 for $9.5 million dollars. Kipnis will make $14,666,667 next season and he also has a 2020 option that would pay him $16.5 million dollars. Gomes is scheduled to be paid $7,083,334 next season, but there are two option years in his contract, If picked up in 2020 Gomes would be paid $9 million dollars and in 2021 his salary would jump to $11 million dollars. Perez is signed for two more seasons and has two option years on his contract. Next season Perez will be paid $2.625 million dollars in 2020 his salary will be $3.625 million dollars. If picked up his option years would pay him $5.5 million dollars in 2021 and $7 million dollars in 2022. Encarnacion has the biggest salary of all of the players the Indians would be willing to move. Encarnacion will make $21.667, 000 next season; he also has an option year on his contract that would pay him $20 million dollars if it was picked up.

It’s unclear how many of these players the Indians would be willing tp deal to get their payroll to what they consider an acceptable level, but you have to think they’ll get a lot of interest in these players; especially those two pitchers.

Kluber won 20 games last season and willing be in the running to win the Cy Young award which would be his 3rd if he won it. Kluber has three 18-win seasons as well as finally getting to the 20 number this season. You’d have to think that Cleveland is getting calls on him already.

Carrasco has had some injuries in his career, but noting that has affected his shoulder or elbow. Carrasco has won double digit games the last four season; he had 17 wins last season. With the salary he carries you have to think that Cleveland has already had some calls on him as well.

How many of these players do you see the Indians actually trading? Also how many do you think they can trade and still not have to worry to much about the other teams in the AL Central?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.